Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or story line of the Walking Dead, i am tweaking it a bit but sadly not mine. I would love to own it or at lease be in it for the whole Daryl awesomeness but sadly not possible

A/N: Hey all this is my first walking dead story i hope you all like it. Iwas starting a different one but then i came up with this idea and it flowed so much better. So Enjoy and i appreciate reviews.

Summary: Daryl was separated from his wife when the Zombie apocalypse happened, he thinks that they are both dead and that he's a broken and lost man. But they are alive and are trying to make their way to him. Daryl/OC.

Chapter One

Not everyone was meant to survive the zombie apocalypse; some people were survivors and knew how to make it in the new world while others weren't so lucky and eventually became the undead's food. Some people, the survivalists and hunters of the world could adapt, accept what happened and survive in the new undead infested world but the regular people usually didn't survive very long unless they were incredibly lucky or met up with the right kind of people. Otherwise there's no way that a majority of people would have survived in the new world, not with how things are now.

When the apocalypse happened many people were separated; they were separated from their friends and families without any way of contacting them and telling them that they were okay and alive. When shit hit the fan many people had been in the wrong place at the wrong time; some were vacationing, having a road trip or even visiting family who lived far away. No matter the reason a lot of people were separated.

That is exactly what happened to Natalie Dixon and her daughter Marlie. Natalie and Marlie had left Georgia and drove out to Arizona to visit Natalie's grandparents who lived about an hour outside of Phoenix; Natalie's husband Daryl was going to join up with them in a day or two after him and his brother Merle finished a construction job that they were doing. But things didn't pan out that way, the world ended and Natalie had no way to contact Daryl anymore. Natalie and Marlie have been through hell just trying to get from Arizona to Georgia – one way or another they were going to find Daryl.

"Mama?"

Natalie turned from looking out of their tent at the forest to her six year old daughter Marlie and smiled at her gently, "Yes Lil' Darlin'?" she asked as she moved further into the tent and sat down on the sleeping bags she had.

Marlie took a deep breath and looked at her mom with a resolved face, "Is daddy dead like those creepy people eatin' things?" she asked as serious as she could for a six year old.

"No, No way." Natalie said convincingly. "Your daddy is not one of those biters; if anyone is made to be able survive something like this it's definitely your dad. He's a hunter and a survivor." She told her and wrapped her arms around her daughter comfortingly.

"What 'bout uncle Merle?" Marlie asked quietly.

At that Natalie gave a small laugh, "Uncle Merle is still alive too, he was the one who taught dad some of the things he knows. Those two are still alive, I know it. Dixon's don't die easy." She told her with a pointed look and leaned over and kissed Marlie's forehead. "Side's uncle Merle probably scared off all of those biters with that bad mouth of his." She said to her.

Marlie giggled and looked up at her mom, "You and Daddy say bad words too." She said to her.

"Traitor," Natalie said with a half-smile on her face. "You're supposed to be on my side not your uncles." She told her. "Besides your daddy and I are much better than Merle any day.

Marlie nodded, "I know." She said to her and then reached across the tent and grabbed her colors and coloring book. "I'm gonna color a picture for Daddy and uncle Merle. I wanna show 'em that I missed 'em whole bunches." Marlie told her.

That made Natalie smile, "I'm sure they'd love that." She told her.

After Natalie said that both she and Marlie just sat n comfortable silence, Marlie coloring a picture for her dad and her uncle and Natalie was enjoying watching her daughter and knowing that she was safe with her which was something she wished she could say for Daryl. What Natalie had said to Marlie was true, she knew without a doubt that Daryl and Merle were still alive – this new world, this zombie infested world was something that the two brothers were made for. They were hunters, trackers, fighters and survivors. They can overcome anything that is thrown at them without blinking an eye. But just because she knew they were alive doesn't mean that Natalie isn't worried, she would rather see them face to face to know that they are alright and alive rather than depending on what she knew of them.

"Mama?" Marlie asked again.

"Yes'm?" Natalie responded and looked down at her daughter.

Marlie stopped coloring for a few moments, "I'm hungry." She told her.

"Let's see what we got to eat," Natalie said and grabbed one of the few bags they had and dug through it.

For the last twoish weeks that they have been traveling through the southern states their food supply has gone drastically, especially after Natalie and Marlie were attacked which was only a few days ago. Sadly not everyone is nice in the apocalyptic world, people are greedy, selfish and aren't against attacking other people for supplies- not even people who have kids. If Natalie wouldn't have fought back and eventually killed those three men she knew without a fact she would either have been raped or killed if not both. One of the men was very close to succeeding in raping Natalie but Marlie used her arrow gun to stun the guy long enough for Natalie to gain the upper hand.

"Here," Natalie said and handed Marlie a peanut butter granola bar. "Eat this and then we are going to bed. We have an early day tomorrow." She told her with a pointed look.

Marlie groaned, "I don't like peanut butter." She said recognizing the package.

Hearing that Natalie laughed, Marlie was definitely taking after her. "I know, I don't either but you need to eat and keep your strength up so that we can keep on moving and find daddy. I need you to eat this and keep on being a big girl, I need someone to watch my back when it's just me and you." She said to her.

"So I can save you from bad guys like I did last time?" Marlie asked her.

Natalie grimaced but nodded, "Yes Marlie so you can save me from bad guys and from the biters. Okay?" she asked looking at her intently.

With a sigh Marlie nodded and opened the granola bar and took a reluctant bite, "Yes mama." She said to her. "Are you gonna eat too?" she asked.

"Nah, not right now." Natalie told her with a tight smile. "I ate earlier when you were taking a nap."

For the last few days Natalie has been giving up food so that Marlie could eat more, she ate enough to keep going but not enough to keep her from feeling as if her stomach was going to eat itself. They needed to either find some place with food or go hunting, Natalie was nowhere being the best hunter but she wasn't terrible – Daryl and Merle taught her what they knew and some of the stuff did stick even if she was a reluctant learning all those years ago.

"I love you mama," Marlie said to Natalie as she leaned up and kissed her mom on the cheek. "We'll find daddy soon and then we can be a family again." She told her and then crawled over to her sleeping bag and laid out on it.

"I know," Natalie whispered and then soon joined her daughter on the sleeping bags, not that she was planning on getting much sleep.

Traveling alone with your daughter makes a mother cautious and wary, Natalie has barely slept since everything happened and she didn't trust herself to sleep for very long as it was. There were too many dangerous things out in the world; the dead and living alike. Natalie refused to let herself get comfortable and get her daughter and herself killed.

~_~_~_~_~_~_~ Few hours later: Natalie & Marlie's camp ~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~

"Mama. Mama wake up. Mommy please!"

Natalie was groggily woken up by the sound of her daughter's terrified whisper, blinking a bit she opened her eyes to look at Marlie's frightened face. It took Natalie a few moments but she soon realized what had her daughter scared, she could hear the noises of the can's she had strung up a few feet around their tent – a warning system to let them know that biters were trying to get to them, and the tell-tale sounds of moans of the undead.

"Damn it!" Natalie swore and quickly grabbed her boots and tugged them on over her sockless foot, she then turned to look at Marlie. "Do you have your arrow gun?" she asked.

Marlie nodded without a word and pulled it out and held it tightly to her chest.

Natalie nodded, "Good, keep it out and keep it aimed up, one of them gets in here aim at the head." She told her seriously and grabbed her gun and black coconut knife that looked like a mini-machete. "Stay here until I come back for you. I love you." She said to her before unzipping the tent and quickly zipping it back before looking out into the dark woods.

There was a biter about three or four feet from her struggling around the strings of cans, but she could tell it wasn't the only one. Glancing around quickly she saw one heading towards the tent and then another one a bit farther behind the one struggling with the cans.

"Hey!" Natalie said gaining the attention of the one that was closing in on the tent her daughter was in. "Come and get me you bastard." She said as she slowly tried to lure the biter farther away from the tent.

The biter cocked his head a bit and headed towards Natalie, snarling with its arms outstretched towards her just waiting to take a bit out of her luscious flesh. Yeah, Natalie was definitely not going to let that happen. She was not in the mood to become the undead's damn happy meal.

"Fucking ugly ass Biter, I ain't dying today!" she said as she kicked at it and slashed her knife at it but only resulted it her cutting its arm almost all the way in half – it was barely hanging on.

Natalie was about to make another move to attack it when she was grabbed from behind, she gave a slight scream and crouched down and used her body weight to throw the thing off of her. Once it was on the ground she stomped on its head but it was still moving and grabbing at her, she jumped away from it and quickly kicked the other one that was still coming at her and trying to grab at her to pull her towards its mouth.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Natalie yelled and rolled away from the both of them and finally stuck her mini-machete into the back of its head effectively killing it.

Before she was even able to take a breath she heard the growls of the other two biters, turning around Natalie chopped the other one right down the middle of the head – she was not in the mood to mess around. The last Biter, an older woman who seemed to have back problems, maybe even before she ended up as the undead steadily made her way towards Natalie.

"Fuck off!" Natalie said before she did a roundhouse kick to the old Biters stomach making her fall to the ground and then impaled her knife into the woman's face.

Sighing Natalie looked down at herself and groaned, her pj's were covered in biter blood and brain matter and she had no idea where the nearest river or stream or lake even was; Georgia she would have known where a majority of the water resources were but not Alabama.

"Mommy?" Marlie cried from within the tent. "Mommy are you okay?"

"Yeah Marlie, I'm fine." Natalie said as she wiped her knife off on the bottom of her useless pj's, at least she had more than just the one pair otherwise she would have to sleep in jeans and t-shirts until they find Daryl.

Marlie ran out of the tent and was about to run to her mother but stopped when she saw that she was covered in blood, "They got you mommy!" she said as tears started to form in her eyes.

Hearing that Natalie shook her head at her daughter, "Mar I promise you they didn't get me, all of this blood is theirs not mine. I'm fine." She told her soothingly.

"Oh." Marlie said in response to that.

"I need you to go back in the tent and stay there, I need to clean this up and get changed." Natalie told her.

For a moment it looked as if Marlie was about to argue but she thought better of it and nodded and went back into the tent but she sat near the opening and watched her mother. She wanted to keep her in her sights.

After about thirty to forty minutes Natalie had finally cleaned everything up, she dragged the bodies of the dead out of camp and a bit away but close enough so Marlie could yell for help if she needed it and then left the bodies there. Once she finished with the body clean up Natalie stripped from her ruined Pj's, cleaned up with some of the bottled water they had and put a pair of jeans on, a spaghetti strap shirt, a tank top and then an unbuttoned bright yellow and black plaid tunic shirt that reached to just below her hips and sleeves that were 3/4th length. After the Biter's arrived at Camp Natalie knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night and figured she might as well just stay up and keep watch and try and make a plan for where they should head to once they make it into Georgia.

Natalie wanted to head to her and Daryl's house but she realized that it would be stupid, she doubted that Daryl would even be there – he and Merle would probably have left for the refugee centers like she and her grandparents had done before it was obvious they weren't going to make it to them and took shelter somewhere else.

God, Natalie missed Daryl more than ever – he was her rock, her strength, her support and everything. It's been hell being away from him for so long and not even being able to hear his voice. She just hoped that they would be reunited soon enough.